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Clear explanations of piano tuning for the beginner are hard to find. When I wanted to learn how to tune my piano, most sources insisted that I should not try, or hid the basics in a mountain of detail, or insisted I buy a book. So I taught myself instead. After research and trying it, I developed the simplified method on this site which uses three tools: mutes, electronic tuner and a tuning lever.

i think i speak for most of the people here when I say that we do hold our piano's as 'precious' and would not attempt such a thing. shameless plug?

You certainly don't speak for me. I would, and have attempted such a thing and I used some of the ideas presented on that site as part of my resources (I also visited several other sites). I guess it is a plug, but there's nothing shameless about it. Lot's of people have promoted themselves on PW.

There is no reason why each and every pianist here shouldn't be familiar with tuning techniques. Even if you never tune your whole piano, occasionally you can have one or two notes that are out which you could tune yourself until your regular professional tuning appointment.

These instructions aren't bad. The writer doesn't make the most common mistake of suggesting that you use a simple guitar tuner for the whole piano, and he also gives some other basic warnings, such as how to prevent rounding off the pin by not having the socket seated.

Any skill can be learned (some of us are better at some things than others), and we definitely need more piano technicians. Just use your common sense about risk-taking, like you would if you were working on your car, plumbing, or house wiring, and know when to call the experts.

I teach many of my customers how to touch up unisons between tunings (make two or three strings on one note sound the same).

I applaud you for your gesture of good will and your effort to want to be helpful to other piano owners here, but you have opened a huge can of worms and an ongoing controversy when you mention tuning your own piano here on these forums. Granted, there are many members here who do exactly that (and do a competent job, by-the-way), but they usually keep fairly quite about it for various reasons.

I, for one, understand your sentiments and your thoughts here, and I agree to an extent, but topics like â€śtune your piano by yourselfâ€ť will only garner contention, harsh comments (like the one from itsfreakingmeout) and nasty arguments here. There are lots of professionals in all aspects of the piano business who are members of this forum, and they donâ€™t take kindly to threads like yours who encourage piano owners to tune their own piano for lots of reasons.

Cyâ€™s comments above are about as peaceful and civil as it getsâ€¦ Heâ€™s a great guy and a great piano tech, and has helped me with technical information on several occasions.

As valuable and interesting as this topic is, it is probably better left taboo on these forums for the sake of peace and civility.

Take care,

Rick

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Piano enthusiast and amateur musician: "Treat others the way you would like to be treated". Yamaha C7. YouTube Channel

Respectfully I disagree. All on-topic posts are welcome. I, for one, welcome healthy discourse on the advantages and disadvantages or trying to learn to tune your own piano. The overly sensitive and the overly critical can bugger off.

Kurt

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One who does what the Friend wants donewill never need a friend.

I am in Cy's camp! I have purchased professional tuning levers for clients who are interested in tuning. I have a link to places to buy tools, and acquire tuning software on my website. I have no problem whatsoever with anyone who wants to try their hand at tuning a piano! Even if it doesn't work out, they will gain a deeper appreciation to the craft, and their piano. So what if a string breaks? It happens to all of us! As a professional in the service industry I feel it is NOT professional to make a client feel embarrassed or ashamed if they attempted a repair themselves. Sometimes they do surprisingly well. Other times....

I agree that this board sees contentious, nasty, argumentative responses frequently, but I think it's very unfortunate. The contentious and nasty should be what is taboo around here rather than someone posting a link to a site (s)he found informative and wanted to share.

I'm never going to try to tune or "touch up" my piano -- I find it hard enough to tune my guitar! But I do love learning about how a pianos are made, how the should be cared for, how they work, and what techs do. I think pianists should learn as much about their instrument, how it works and how it is maintained as they can.

I am in Cy's camp! I have purchased professional tuning levers for clients who are interested in tuning. I have a link to places to buy tools, and acquire tuning software on my website. I have no problem whatsoever with anyone who wants to try their hand at tuning a piano! Even if it doesn't work out, they will gain a deeper appreciation to the craft, and their piano. So what if a string breaks? It happens to all of us! As a professional in the service industry I feel it is NOT professional to make a client feel embarrassed or ashamed if they attempted a repair themselves. Sometimes they do surprisingly well. Other times....

Wow, have attitudes here changed or what? What happened to the quote â€śonly a fool would represent him/herself in court and only a fool would attempt to tune their own pianoâ€ť? Iâ€™ve been made to feel like a fool all this time, but a fool whose piano is in tune.

Maybe attitudes here have changedâ€¦ are the PW forums evolving?

Let the good times rollâ€¦â€¦.

Rick

_________________________
Piano enthusiast and amateur musician: "Treat others the way you would like to be treated". Yamaha C7. YouTube Channel

I sort of agree with Rickster, however, I would say that this thread would be ripped to shreds on the Technicians forum, but treated a little more respectful on this forum. I learned to tune my own piano and have always been glad that I did. I still call a professional at times, but I have saved myself $1000's of dollars over the last 20 years, and in todays economy who couldn't use that kind of savings. One thing that came in handy and was sort of a suprise, I got a speeding ticket this summer and the judge sentanced me to 8 hours of community service. I contacted a couple of local small churches and offered to tune their pianos. They were thrilled to get their pianos tuned for free and I felt like I contributed to the success of several Christmas programs around our city. I also got to know several music ministers. Overall, it was a great experience.

I certainly have nothing against people trying to learn technical work on a piano, but I also warn people about the pitfalls. I have a friend who works with vision-impaired people, and he once asked me about it for one of his charges. I invited them to my club for dinner, and explained the good and the bad of the business. Afterwards, my friend said he could not decide whether I had been encouraging or discouraging. I took that as a compliment.

I tell people I can teach them to tune a piano in a day, and after that, it just takes four years of practice to become good at it. It takes even longer to become truly excellent. If you think the first piano tuning you do sounds wonderful, you probably have very little aptitude for piano tuning.

Tuning is an art, Respect it and go to school if you really want to learn.

oh please, cooking can be an art too but somehow we cook ourselves with great results almost everyday. Why we assume art cannot be part of our everyday's life???

Besides good musicians should be able to tune his/her instrument wether it is flute , guitar or piano.

Yeah, but some cooks make six figure salaries as well as some Concert Tuners, they did not get there by cooking at home. So go ahead and read your Tuning Made Easy. I have tuned drums for a living before, and just about every drummer can tune his own drums but not all can tune to make a living.

The piano is just one instrument that is so complex, how many instruments can you name that have over 10,000 parts. How many spices can you name off the top of your head, and mix those spices to achieve a certain taste. Art and being an artist are two different things. Tuning Made Easy For Piano...sorry, it's a Joke.

There are very few parts that need to be touched, merely to perform a tuning.

All string players treat continuos tuning adjustments as an everyday basic skill. Clearly, tuning a piano is a bit more involved, but some degree of basic adjustment (of unisons for example) is not all that difficult. My tuner showed me how to do it years ago and he did not treat it as a black art. He knew perfectly well he was much more skilled than me - and was happy to share some of it.

A really good tuner can deliver superlative results. I prefer to use my good tuner every three months. But I see no reason why anyone who fancies it cannot learn to tune their piano to their own satisfaction.

Incidentally, I got the impression, perhaps wrongly, that the OP was not promoting himself, as has been suggested here. He had just come across a web site to which he is drawing our attention - as a good citizen of Piano World.

Don't mean to sound harsh. Somethings will drive you crazy, and I think this is one of them. Spend that time practicing. My piano tech friend who works in New York just gave me one word advice to piano tuning when I get a real piano. If the tuner is not striking those strings loud, "Get Rid Of Him". He told me it should get on my nerves because when I go to play if no vibrations was made when tuning, it will go out of tune with the vibrations I will make playing. Can't exactly explain like he did but I know what he was saying. He also told me to ask how many cents out of tune it was, I have it written down somewhere to know how many cents for a pitch raise but no piano should get that bad before it needs tuning. That was it...so I will remember that. I asked though, "Can I tune the piano myself?"..he just laughed... and said yeah, If you have a couple of years to learn.

i think i speak for most of the people here when I say that we do hold our piano's as 'precious' and would not attempt such a thing. shameless plug?

You certainly don't speak for me. I would, and have attempted such a thing and I used some of the ideas presented on that site as part of my resources (I also visited several other sites). I guess it is a plug, but there's nothing shameless about it. Lot's of people have promoted themselves on PW.

There is no reason why each and every pianist here shouldn't be familiar with tuning techniques. Even if you never tune your whole piano, occasionally you can have one or two notes that are out which you could tune yourself until your regular professional tuning appointment.

pianoloverus
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Registered: 05/29/01
Posts: 21718
Loc: New York City

I'm not mechanically inclined and don't think that my ear would be good enough to tune even with much practice. From the little I've read about it it seems very complex(although I was a math teacher before retiring). I've read somewhere that it takes 1000 tunings to become reasonably good, so even if I had more mechanical/aural skills I would never consider tuning my piano.

I would never attempt to replicate or replace what my tuner does, but I wouldn't mind learning a bit of touch-up. Seems like there are always those one or two notes that go noticeably sour before the tuner's next servicing.

Well, I see this thread is not done yetâ€¦ in fact, it is just getting started. Who knows where it will end, or how many feathers will be ruffled in the process.

I will say, however, that I have enjoyed learning to tune and service my pianos as much as Iâ€™ve enjoyed learning to play. Fact is, I own two tuning hammers!

To me, the most difficult part is learning to tune the unisons to sound pure. The ETD can help you set the temperament and the pitch of a certain note. However, getting the unisons right and stable is the real challenge. Heck, itâ€™s all a challenge!

Tuning is actually the easiest part (once you learn proper tuning hammer technique). Regulating and voicing is a whole new ballgame. One thing is for sure, you tend to develop an appreciation for the real piano techs when you try it yourself. My hat is off to the fine piano techs here on this forum, and else ware, that are good at their craft; there is no substitute for years of training and experience.

And, to BDBâ€¦ no, the first time I tuned my piano, it didnâ€™t sound great, but it sounded a hell of lot better than it did when it was way out of tune!

Happy Holidays!

Rick

_________________________
Piano enthusiast and amateur musician: "Treat others the way you would like to be treated". Yamaha C7. YouTube Channel